Breathe Me
by cupcakesandlovefests
Summary: Set after 3x14. As long as she's breathing,in my eyes,we're just beginning.


**Author Note: I'm unsure whether to take this any further,I thought I'd let you wonderful people be the judge.**

"She's awake"

That's all it takes for Rachel to go racing down the inordinately bright corridor towards the private room where Quinn lay in a bed, finally awake after days of heavy sedation while the worst of her injuries were assessed.

She walks into the room just in time to hear a croaky Quinn rasp and heave as the tube in her throat, one of a few, was finally removed now that she could breath on her own again.

It was funny; the feeling that overcame Rachel, almost as if she'd just regained the ability to breathe too.

The nurse waved her over to the bed as she took the girl's blood pressure ready to note it down on the clipboard she held, she'd been on fifteen minute OBS since she arrived in the ICU after the accident.

Rachel hesitantly approached, she was the only one who hadn't visited yet, she needed to wait until she was awake and breathing. She **needed** to know that Quinn was really still alive.

"Pull up the chair, sweetie" The nurse told her with a smile, "I'll leave you two to it but I'm afraid you'll be seeing a lot of me, doctor's orders"

She left the room after checking all the machines and noting down various figures and Rachel slowly scraped the armchair the short distance until she was sitting within reach of Quinn's hands. She awkwardly flexed her own hands before Quinn's hand slowly opened and turned over to be palm side up, a heaven sent sign.

The brunette almost thanked the God that she didn't believe in as she their skin collided, Rachel's fingers brushing against the cannula that was keeping a friendship between Quinn's blood stream and the Morphine that slowly drip, drip, dripped through the attached tube.

"Sorry" she murmured, not really talking about the cannula.

Quinn understood, she nodded as Rachel looked sadly from their hands to her eyes. She blinked as the girl opened her mouth before closing it again with a sigh.

"It's okay" Quinn's thirsted throat rasped, Rachel wasted no time in popping the cap on her water bottle and lifting it to her lips, she drank as hungrily as she could manage, breathing heavily when Rachel pulled it away. Normality was exhausting.

Rachel chuckled sadly.

"How on earth is any of this okay, Quinn?" she whispered as she gnawed at her lip.

The blonde managed the slightest shrug of her shoulders before her nose wrinkled as a pain shot straight down her left arm.

"Broken?" she asked through a sharp intake of breath.

"Believe it or not, only a slight fracture" Rachel told her, "they were very surprised considering the way you were..crumpled when they-" she paused as her voice shook, "when they had to cut you out of the car"

"Hey" Quinn said gently as she squeezed the tan hand in hers.

"It's all my fault" Rachel sobbed.

"No, it isn't" she told her insistently.

"I didn't stop texting you"

"I didn't stop replying"

"Why didn't you?" Rachel sniffed. "Oh Quinn, it all just seems so stupid now. If I hadn't of made the mistake of telling Finn yes in the first place then you wouldn't be in this mess"

"We were both stupid teenagers, Rach" Quinn told her with a small smile, "but if you're going to sit here feeling guilty then I'll tell them not to let you in because I don't want you doing that to yourself"

"But-"

"No buts" Quinn told her in a voice that declared how it wasn't up for debate, Rachel nodded and she smiled again.

"So, I'm guessing that the marriage didn't go ahead?"

Rachel laughed and Quinn grinned at the sight of the brunette's entire face lighting up, that heavenly sound echoing throughout the room.

"Most definitely not, and it's not an event on my calendar"

The blonde's eyebrow rose slightly.

"So you two haven't rescheduled?"

"It's not going to be rescheduled; Quinn, Finn and I are no longer together. It's over, for good this time. I'm not kidding myself any more, and I have you to thank for that" she told her as she gently traced the heart line on Quinn's palm.

"..So even though I didn't make it to the wedding I still managed to stop it?" Quinn said, to herself more than anything.

She let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, Rachel noticed this and shyly nodded.

"Yes, you saved me, Quinn. I only wish it hadn't taken me so long to open my eyes"

"Rach, I-"

"You should get some sleep" Rachel told her as she gently reached up to stroke her hair and push her bangs away from her face.

"Haven't I slept enough?"

Rachel chuckled and looked through her lashes to the blonde whose eyes were already starting to drift shut.

"Will you be here when I wake up?" Quinn asked sleepily as Rachel adjusted her pillows and kissed her forehead.

"I'll be here as long as you want me to be" Rachel assured her as she removed her shoes and tucked her feet beneath her on the chair.

Quinn's eyes closed and Rachel leant her head against the bed as she concentrated on Quinn's breathing and the faint humming of machines around her.

"Rachel" Quinn murmured just when the brunette thought she was out for the night.

"Yes?" she asked as she picked up her head.

"Here's to us"

Rachel chuckled and blamed it on the medication, but it didn't stop her cheeks from flushing pink and warmth emulating from her head to her toes.

"Here's to us" she replied in a whisper.

* * *

"NO NO I HAVE TO GET TO RACHEL, I HAVE TO STOP THE WEDDING!"

Rachel lifted her head to see a distressed Quinn yelling at the top of her voice with her eyes still closed, she jumped to her feet and tried to still her.

"Quinn" she said, "Quinn, it's okay, you're okay"

"SHE'S GOING TO MARRY HIM, SHE CAN'T MARRY HIM"

"Quinn!" Rachel said raising her voice as the nurse ran into the room to see what all the commotion was about.

"She's having a nightmare" she told her before hurriedly cupping her face.

"Quinn, it's okay, I'm here, you're okay, open your eyes"

"SHE CAN'T DO IT, SHE CAN'T, I HAVE TO AT LEAST TRY"

Tears were falling down the brunette's cheeks by this point, she felt so hopeless as she watched Quinn's tense body writhe painfully against the sheets.

"Quinn, open your eyes, sweetheart, please" she sobbed as the nurse stood silently watching it all unfold.

"Quinn, I didn't marry Finn, I'm here with you, open your eyes"

A loud gasp escaped Quinn as her eyes flew open and her chest heaved, her panicked eyes found Rachel and it was like a wave of calm cascaded over her body.

The beeping of the heart monitor stopped and finally she stopped hyperventilating, the nurse pressed a few buttons before gazing down at her.

"Take it easy, sweetheart, she's here with you" was all she said before leaving them alone again.

The blonde didn't even feel the need to hide her face in embarrassment, she was much too exhausted.

"Is there anything I can do?" Rachel asked, silently wishing she could take all of her pain away.

"Get in the bed, please" she pleaded, the head cheerleader façade so far forgotten.

Rachel pulled back the covers and gently slid in beside her, nervously keeping her hands in her lap out of fear of unintentionally hurting Quinn.

Quinn sighed until the brunette got the point and slipped a hand in hers once again.

"Good night, Quinn" Rachel told her in a hush.

The blonde bit her lip and tried to close her eyes, she really did. But every time she did she could taste the blood filling her mouth and the screech of tyres and failed braking.

Rachel could feel her slight movements, wanting to cry when she heard the girl hiss through her teeth.

"How can I help? Please, tell me how and I will" Rachel almost begged.

"Sing to me, please"

So she did.

She didn't even get to the second chorus of I Feel Pretty Unpretty before those gorgeous eyes slid shut.

Rachel lay awake watching her for what felt like hours but was probably just mere minutes, focusing on the rise and fall of her chest and the occasional twitch of the hand she was holding.

The nurse, whose name she'd learn was Jill, came in and smiled at the sight of Quinn lay against Rachel.

"She's very lucky to have you" Jill told her as she put up new bags of liquid.

"Funny, I feel like the lucky one" Rachel said seriously as her eyes flickered over the girl's sleeping form. "She wouldn't be in here if it wasn't for me"

"You can't blame yourself, Rachel, right?" Rachel nodded as Jill smiled at her.

"She was a silly girl texting behind the wheel, but she obviously had good enough reason to consider taking such a risk"

"She was on her way to my wedding, to stop me from making the biggest mistake of my life"

Jill looked between the two girls curiously.

"Why would it have been the biggest mistake of your life? Besides the fact that you're way too young to even be thinking of marriage" Jill smiled, Rachel chuckled.

Rachel chewed her lip nervously.

"It's..complicated"

Jill smiled sympathetically.

"I guarantee that nothing is ever as complicated as it feels"

"You're probably right" Rachel sighed as she delicately moved Quinn's bangs away from her face.

"Rachel" Jill said getting the girl to look to her. "I know it's not really any of my business, but I saw the way she looked at you. And from what I've seen of the way you look at her, it's like I wasn't even in here"

Rachel blushed slightly.

"For what it's worth, I think you two would make an adorable couple"

The brunette's eyes widened and Jill chuckled to herself.

"Um..we're not.."

Rachel tensed as Quinn moved in her sleep and buried her face into the girl's shoulder.

Jill watched as the two fit together so perfectly without even knowing it.

"I see a lot of people in and out of this place, Rachel, a lot of them leave with regret. In my experience it's best to say what you feel while you have the chance, I've got to get back to my patients but try to get some rest, okay? She needs you"

Jill smiled again before leaving Rachel with her thoughts.

_She was coming to stop the wedding.  
She's in here because it was that important for her to let me know she was on her way.  
She asked me how she looked in her Cheerios uniform. Why would she need **my **validation?  
She checked that I was singing to Finn. To **only** Finn._

"Oh my god" Rachel whispered to herself.

Could Quinn Fabray actually have feelings for her?

It would make a lot of things make more sense than they had.

"Oh my god" she repeated.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, her palms felt clammy and she was sure that Quinn could hear it thudding away as her head moved comfortably to her chest.

"Your heart's beating really fast" Quinn murmured as she stirred, barely.

Rachel laughed nervously.

"Yeah" she breathed.

"I like it" Quinn told her sleepily.

She exhaled shakily and let her arm drape loosely over the girl's body.

"I think I do too" she gulped._  
_


End file.
